Is Rainier pronounced “rin-yea” or “ray-near”. I also thought it was the latter, but they keep pronouncing it differently on the news. Please help. Thanks in advance.
I’d have thought that, in French, it was pronounced ray-ni-ay.
ah, thank you
The first “ay” is flattened, so in conversation it will sound like “ren-ee-YAY” with the second syllable shortened.
You hear the other pronunciation because of jamokes who confuse the Prince with the mountain in Washington state.
I believe it was the late unlamented New York Daily Mirror which headlined the announcement of Princess Grace’s first pregnancy with:
MONACO WEATHER FORECAST: A LITTLE RAINIER IN FEBRUARY
I believe “Price” is pronounced “Prince” in this instance. 
The VOA pronunciation guide says it’s pronounced “RAIN-yay”
I think that would be close except the A is flattened and pronounced sort of like the A in HAT with just a touch of nasal. It also wouldn’t hurt to add just a little back-of-the-throat gutteral to the R.
So except for altering every syllable, RAIN-yay is dead on.